Nothing derails a good finance process faster than a senior living construction project. Suddenly, you’re tracking invoices, chasing approvals, and juggling hundreds of costs across multiple builds. By year-end, spreadsheets turn into late nights, missing invoices, and a Construction-in-Progress balance no one trusts. It’s not just you: 61% of late invoice payments in the U.S. are caused by simple invoicing errors. That’s why more senior living finance teams look to accounts payable automation to bring order back to the process.
Why do construction projects create so much AP complexity though, what’s really getting lost in the manual process, and how can you stay organized from day one? That’s what we’ll go through today. Your goal isn’t just to survive and get through the build; it’s coming out the other side with financials you can trust (and sanity intact). Just think: What if every invoice automatically rolled into the right project, with a clean audit trail from day one? It’s not wishful thinking. It’s what a structured system actually does, and we can help you get there.
The Binder Trap
When your senior living facility starts expanding, it’s easy to default to what’s familiar. Track invoices in Excel, file backups in binders, and hope it all ends up working out for year-end. Each invoice gets keyed into AP, then keyed again into fixed assets when the project wraps. Somewhere in between, a few updates get lost, a few numbers don’t quite add up, and by audit season, everyone’s asking the same question: “Where did this cost come from?”
The truth that most of us don’t like admitting (because we rely on them so much) is that spreadsheets aren’t systems. They were never meant to manage multi-million-dollar construction projects. They’re great for to-do lists, but they should not be used for tracking 18 months of draws, retainage, and change orders.
Accounts payable automation can make a real difference. Instead of juggling manual entry, scattered files, and disconnected approvals, accounts payable automation creates a process that scales with your growth. You can keep invoices tied to the right project, reduce errors, and get visibility long before audit season hits.
If you need even more of an excuse to get rid of Excel, here it is: processing an invoice manually can cost up to $16 per invoice, while automating the process can reduce this to as low as $3 per invoice. Multiply that by a few hundred construction invoices… and, well, you get the picture. Not only is accounts payable automation efficient, but it also puts money back in your budget.
Structure Beats Spreadsheets… Everyday.
In Sage Intacct, every construction invoice comes through AP once, tagged to the right project and Construction-in-Progress account from the start. Costs roll up automatically into the project, giving you real-time visibility into spending, progress, and commitments. Once the build is complete, you click one button to capitalize the whole thing into fixed assets. No re-keying, no backtracking, no late-night Excel sessions.
Now your auditors can follow a clean digital trail. Bond trustees can see the detail they need instantly, and your finance team can take a deep breath when year-end rolls around. Since 2023, thanks to accounts payable automation solutions like Sage Intacct, 52% of AP professionals now spend fewer than ten hours per week processing invoices, down from 62% just a year ago. Your finance team will thank you later.
Real Results (and Fewer Weekends Lost)
One of our senior living clients cut weeks (yes, weeks!) off their year-end close just by implementing accounts payable automation and automating that AP-to-CIP flow. Their auditors stopped asking for supporting schedules because the data was already there. Their project managers could finally see the real-time costs of building. Their controller said (and we quote), “This was the first December I didn’t work through a weekend.” That’s what happens when structure replaces spreadsheets. You stop chasing invoices and start managing information. The cherry on top? You’ll get your weekends back.
Expansion is stressful enough. Your accounting system shouldn’t make it worse. With Sage Intacct’s project and CIP automation, you can finally build a clean digital trail from invoice to capitalization. No binders. No double-entry. No “we’ll fix it later” mindset because when your process runs itself, you get to focus on the fun part: watching that new community take shape (without the mountain of paperwork that used to come with it).
If you have questions on accounts payable automation or how Sage Intacct might help your senior living construction projects, drop us a line. Our team of experts is here to help.
